A Gala with a star!

Most of us have been to Gala’s over the years, benefitting this cause and that, you have pretty good food you dance (not us), and generally have a pretty good time.  There is a Gala of (what I consider) a different sort coming up.   Like other galas it does benefit a good institution, in this case our local Ryken High School, but also has a theme not often seen (enough, IMHO) around here.   It’s going to celebrate the food, which is why I was asked to be involved.  As I said, has a couple of features I thought you might like to know about it and hopefully want to attend, I know we are.  Feature number one, the chef:

 Mike Price grew up in our area and worked on his family farm near Redgate and was surrounded by food preparation and developed a love of cooking as his grandmother was constantly cooking and baking.  His Grandfather was a butcher at McKay’s for years. and eventually he began cooking at the Maryland Way restaurant on weekends while attending high school, and hung out at (the old) Evans.  As a result he valued food and simple and seasonal cooking, which led to an appreciation of hard work. 

He graduated from Ryken in 1993, and pursuing his love of food he attended the prestigious  Culinary Institute of America, graduating from the CIA, he did the usual chef thing, learning by doing externships and a tournant (home work assignment) position, mostly in New York city in several restaurants there, then went to Miami for a while, came back to Maryland to learn about the “corporate” side of things doing a stint at the Asbury facility on the Solomons.   He worked with one of our local culinary legends, Bill Taylor for a while.

Then with all the experience gained in 2007 he and a friend opened one of his current venues The Market Table 

very classy

These days a lot of chefs and restaurateurs give lip service to  buying local “Farm to Table” and so forth but here’s a chef actually out in the local markets getting stuff, at a local market.  Every day...

After that success, he opened recently another place, called “The Clam” 

As one might suspect, it is a seafood based restaurant where there is actual seafood, actually prepared

And of course the namesake is available

I don’t know how many of you have had the opportunity to be in the back of the house, although with an “open kitchen” concept you can come close.  In a well run kitchen there is a I (hopefully) quiet rhythm of prepping ingredients

and cooking

And finally plating the result

And, despite the pretty "headshot" of Chef Price at the top, I know enough about these guys that their real passion is to be right here doing what they love

Why all this about MIke?  The people from Ryken contacted him about helping with their upcoming annual Gala.  He graciously accepted, and created a menu for the evening reminiscent of his New York restaurants.  More on that later, but have you heard of “Peekytoe”?   How about a “Peekytoe crab cake with fava beans, English peas, French breakfast radish and cream Dijon” (that’s only course two of four)

The dinner will be executed by Canard’s Catering (Michael and Lisa Kelley) along with Chef Price, who have planned a unique evening, giving you a glimpse into how a menu that might appear in a la carte restaurants can be prepared and served to hundreds of people.  More on that later..

Oh if you’re interested (as you should be) in participating in this unique experience you can go to this link and find out about getting tickets.  Not only will you have a foodie experience not seen before, you can support a local high school that has contributed so much to our community.

Another Ryken graduate, Christian Jarboe (Class of 2013), was kind enough to share some of the stills used above from his video that will be playing during the dinner, it’s a foodie movie for sure.

And I am positive that (along with the Feeder) both the Kelley’s and Chef Price would urge you to

DFD